Needle Felted Honey Bee

Take the brown wool and roll it up in  itself into an oblong shape so that you only end up with the wispy ends. Use your felting needle and stab into these wispy ends. This will tuck them into the shape.  Make sure you rest your project on a felting mat so you do not accidentally prick yourself.

You should now be able to let go of the shape as it will hold together by itself. Stab the needle all over to firm up the oblong shape. One end will be more pointy (tail end) than the other (head).

Next bend the shape so it resembles a kidney bean and stab the needle repeatedly into the centre (underneath the bee)  This will bend the shape.

Now take a tiny wisp of yellow and lay over the top of the bee (the yellow does not need to reach all the way round). Felt the yellow wool down.

Add another two wispy stripes.

For crisp edges of yellow, stab your needle in a straight line along the yellow edge. You can keep it more like a  blurred edge by spreading the yellow out like a dusting and stabbing all over.

For the wings take a wisp of the white wool and lay onto the bee slightly to one side  from the head towards the tail end where it will be positioned. First felt it down behind the first yellow stripe.

Felt the wing down with shallow little stabs mostly concentrating around the edges and a few stabs all over the white wool. Repeat on the other side. Your bee can be left like this or….

…. You can gently lift the white felted wool off the bee’s body so that only the front of the wing stays attached. This way the wings will stay standing up.  Hang your bees by threading a strong thread all the way through the body. You can scale the bees up and down by using more or less wool.

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